Do You Eat Organic?

[Lynn CC]

Feed grain in Alberta is mostly barley mixed with silage pellets; corn is apparently used in other regions where the growing season is longer and it's more readily available. The only times I've ever had corn-fed beef is in the States. Compared to animals that are mostly grass and silage fed, corn-finished meat is a weird, purplish colour and has an unpleasant mushy texture (not tender as we know it - just really untoned somehow).

I agree there is a difference in texture, and taste!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Nope, I don’t eat organic. We’ve had to develop methods to produce enough food for the ever-growing population. If inorganic is good enough for some, it is good enough for me. Plus there has been very little proof that it is healthier for you.

 

[Lynn CC]

Carregenan?

I avoid anything with this additive Carrageenan, I think that's the correct spelling. It's a processed and added to many healthy products, yogurts, etc. It causes inflammation. Not for my family, I avoid it. It's not hard to make your own yogurt, kefir, cheese etc. I make everything from scratch this way I know what's in the food I'm eating. It's the way my grandmother did things in the kitchen and it's just one of those things that is passed down through the generations. My son and DIL do the same for their 3 children. It does take time, but it's better time spent than sitting around, because you have the energy to do these things when you feel healthy. I feel very energetic for 55 so I think it's working! Never too late to start

 

[Lynn CC]

Nope, I don’t eat organic. We’ve had to develop methods to produce enough food for the ever-growing population. If inorganic is good enough for some, it is good enough for me. Plus there has been very little proof that it is healthier for you.

I respect your opinion, but I usually feel like I"m eating poison when I eat a non organic salad. All those pesticides. Just like when we go to the movies, If I ate the popcorn I would feel like it would go straight to clogging my arteries. We do eat out obviously while we are at WDW but it's nice that we don't eat it too often.

 

[ptlohmysoul]

We’ve had to develop methods to produce enough food for the ever-growing population.

This has never been the problem (except maybe during famines which has never been global since I've been alive). The problem is in distribution of the food.

 

[MIGrandma]

Nope, no organic food for us. DH is a crop insurance adjuster and has seen organic “farming” first hand. He is also a farmer himself, all his life, so knows the difference. Organic is just not worth the price.

 

[bcla]

I respect your opinion, but I usually feel like I"m eating poison when I eat a non organic salad. All those pesticides. Just like when we go to the movies, If I ate the popcorn I would feel like it would go straight to clogging my arteries. We do eat out obviously while we are at WDW but it's nice that we don't eat it too often.

Again - "organic" does not equal "pesticide-free". There is zero evidence that "organic" is any healthier in any way than conventionally grown meat/produce.

 

[Summer2018]

I always buy organic everything, mostly make my own everything from scratch. We are lucky here that there is a lot of organic cafe's restaurants, farmers markets. That's the best part of living in California, the freshness of the local foods, produce, grass fed meats, pasture raised organic eggs.
The price is outrageous though. Anyone else buy organic?

We try to eat organic more and more. Our grocery stores are including healthier choices. I went to Whole Foods once, and the prices were outrageous. If I were more affluent, I would shop at Whole Foods all of the time. We do our best to make good choices when we are able.

 

[aristocatz]

I always buy organic everything, mostly make my own everything from scratch. We are lucky here that there is a lot of organic cafe's restaurants, farmers markets. That's the best part of living in California, the freshness of the local foods, produce, grass fed meats, pasture raised organic eggs.
The price is outrageous though. Anyone else buy organic?

I do when I can. I mostly buy organic fresh fruits & veggies.....or fruits and veggies from local farms.
There are certain foods I don't ever bother buying organic:
http://www.eatingwell.com/article/15808/15-foods-you-dont-need-to-buy-organic/

Breads, cereal, crackers, etc...I just stick with brands that don't have anything artificial in them.

We do the best we can. If we are out with the kids and its lunchtime, we sometimes end up at McDonalds, etc...

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

I don't eat organic unless there is nothing else available. I've financed organic farming operations (some of the largest in my state in fact). They only do it for the money, even the farmers don't believe it is better for them. I figure if they don't eat it themselves and don't believe it's any healthier than conventionally grown produce - why pay extra for it.

 

[Imzadi]

I prefer to just support local farmers when I can.

Agree and I think food sourcing is much more important that organic certification. There are lots of small local producers that farm using what are essentially "organic" methods but here to be certified-organic requires jumping through all sorts of regulatory and administrative hoops and paying for costly permits and inspections. It isn't viable for many. Coming from a farm myself, I'm familiar enough with the practices that I'd buy from any small, local producer and feel fine about it.

I meant to ask about this before but I got distracted and forgot to come back to this thread.

I went to visit a huge, famous farmers market here. (Union Square/14th St, for those that are also local and my know more about what I'm asking.) I had expected to see a lot of "organic" signs all over the different booths. I think only 2 booths had Organic signs for their products. All booths DID however, have huge signs up, stating their addresses and that they were local, upstate farms.

Ronandannette, what you said about the costs for being certified as "organic" makes sense. I can understand why now, that these farms may not have wanted to pay for the certification. However, they also didn't have any signs or anything stating their practices, like, "No pesticides," "no hormones or antibiotics," any of the processes that would make them "organic" without the certification. One thing I do know is that businesses can't state they are something, especially in writing, if they are NOT that. So, I didn't buy anything from there.

While I'd love to support local farmers, being "locally grown" means squat to me, if they still use all the pesticides & junk that non-organic companies do. I felt like they were insinuating that they were organic and better quality by just being at the farmers market. But, without the signage, flyers, banners stating any "organic-type" practices, that may not be true. HOW am I supposed to know that their produce & meats are any better, beyond being locally grown & raised?

 

[Lynn CC]

I meant to ask about this before but I got distracted and forgot to come back to this thread.

I went to visit a huge, famous farmers market here. (Union Square/14th St, for those that are also local and my know more about what I'm asking.) I had expected to see a lot of "organic" signs all over the different booths. I think only 2 booths had Organic signs for their products. All booths DID however, have huge signs up, stating their addresses and that they were local, upstate farms.

Ronandannette, what you said about the costs for being certified as "organic" makes sense. I can understand why now, that these farms may not have wanted to pay for the certification. However, they also didn't have any signs or anything stating their practices, like, "No pesticides," "no hormones or antibiotics," any of the processes that would make them "organic" without the certification. One thing I do know is that businesses can't state they are something, especially in writing, if they are NOT that. So, I didn't buy anything from there.

While I'd love to support local farmers, being "locally grown" means squat to me, if they still use all the pesticides & junk that non-organic companies do. I felt like they were insinuating that they were organic and better quality by just being at the farmers market. But, without the signage, flyers, banners stating any "organic-type" practices, that may not be true. HOW am I supposed to know that their produce & meats are any better, beyond being locally grown & raised?

I had this debate with a girlfriend of mine, she gets heated about it. She's a diehard farmers market fan. I don't go, I just can't trust them. The honey looks the same color as the honey sold in Safeway. I go to Good Earth and buy the local honey. Everything there is certified. I would rather pay more than to wonder.

 

[SteveH]

HOW am I supposed to know that their produce & meats are any better, beyond being locally grown & raised?

Try them and see how they taste.

But don't take my word for it, as I see the whole "organic" industry as a scam and poor farming practice to start with.

 

[Imzadi]

I had this debate with a girlfriend of mine, she gets heated about it. She's a diehard farmers market fan. I don't go, I just can't trust them. The honey looks the same color as the honey sold in Safeway. I go to Good Earth and buy the local honey. Everything there is certified. I would rather pay more than to wonder.

Exactly! Or what about the various e-coli alerts we keep having? A few "local" farms 70 miles north of here that might have found e-coli in their lettuce, might be too far away, or not make it onto the local news near me. My local news is busy reporting on the latest shooting and may have have bumped that little, but important lettuce news story.

However, when it's a company that sells to national food chains, those we usually hear about on many different news sources. When Fresh Express had an e-coli alert, a while back, about their lettuce, I checked the packages I had and knew I was fine.

 

[Imzadi]

Try them and see how they taste.

I'm talking more about the possibility of pesticides & hormones. If I'm going to be eating them, I'd rather know it and make a conscious choice to do it. Than have someone act like their produce doesn't have them, by omitting talking about it or listing their practices. That to me speaks volumes too. All the lack of signs about their processes. They could be spraying their produce up the wazoo. Possibly worse than a major farm grower that has to have the USDA come in for inspections all the time, even for non-organic produce.

Two booths DID have signs that said they are organic, at this farmers market. The little bakery booths also listed when they used all natural ingredients. So, it wasn't like signs were banned at this market.

 

[bcla]

Try them and see how they taste.

But don't take my word for it, as I see the whole "organic" industry as a scam and poor farming practice to start with.

Organic farming is really more a holistic farming practice than anything else. However, just from reading this topic I can see that a lot of people seem to have this fear of conventional foods. I really don't get it that anyone thinks that that not getting "organic" means that it's somehow toxic to the human body. There seems to be a lot of irrational fear and a lack of understanding of what "organic" really means. It doesn't mean it's any less toxic, safer, more nutritious, etc. It may mean manure instead of commercial fertilizer. Or (naturally derived) pyrethrin spray rather than a similar synthetic permethrin spray.

I don't know about "scam" but definitely oversold.

Edit: just cleaned up proofreading errors.

 

[ronandannette]

This has never been the problem (except maybe during famines which has never been global since I've been alive). The problem is in distribution of the food.

And politics, geo-politics, profiteering, oppression, control, corruption and greed. Anybody who's had any experience with farming knows first-hand just how much food can be produced through the reasonable stewardship of a modest amount of resources. Production is totally not the issue.

 

[bcla]

I'm talking more about the possibility of pesticides & hormones.

The problem is that "organic" certification doesn't mean free of pesticides. There's a list of naturally occurring toxins (and pesticides are by definition toxins) that are allowed as acceptable for organic farming. I certainly get the philosophy of better farming practices, but not that anyone would really believe that somehow the product is better or safer.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.co...101-organic-farming-conventional-agriculture/
When the Soil Association, a major organic accreditation body in the UK, asked consumers why they buy organic food, 95% of them said their top reason was to avoid pesticides. They, like many people, believe that organic farming involves little to no pesticide use. I hate to burst the bubble, but that's simply not true. Organic farming, just like other forms of agriculture, still uses pesticides and fungicides to prevent critters from destroying their crops. Confused?

So was I, when I first learned this from a guy I was dating. His family owns a farm in rural Ohio. He was grumbling about how everyone praised the local organic farms for being so environmentally-conscientious, even though they sprayed their crops with pesticides all the time while his family farm got no credit for being pesticide-free (they're not organic because they use a non-organic herbicide once a year). I didn't believe him at first, so I looked into it: turns out that there are over 20 chemicals commonly used in the growing and processing of organic crops that are approved by the US Organic Standards. And, shockingly, the actual volume usage of pesticides on organic farms is not recorded by the government. Why the government isn't keeping watch on organic pesticide and fungicide use is a damn good question, especially considering that many organic pesticides that are also used by conventional farmers are used more intensively than synthetic ones due to their lower levels of effectiveness. According to the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy, the top two organic fungicides, copper and sulfur, were used at a rate of 4 and 34 pounds per acre in 1971 1. In contrast, the synthetic fungicides only required a rate of 1.6 lbs per acre, less than half the amount of the organic alternatives.

The sad truth is, factory farming is factory farming, whether its organic or conventional. Many large organic farms use pesticides liberally. They're organic by certification, but you'd never know it if you saw their farming practices. As Michael Pollan, best-selling book author and organic supporter, said in an interview with Organic Gardening,

"They're organic by the letter, not organic in spirit... if most organic consumers went to those places, they would feel they were getting ripped off."​

 

[goofyernmost]

No, I don't eat organic. I prefer to eat my insects separately.

 

[tinkerdorabelle]

This is interesting. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_farming